According to a report from Reuters, South Korea's government has drafted strict new rules for automakers to follow when calculating fuel economy. The legislation comes after a major snafu by Hyundai and Kia that resulted in the automakers lowering the estimated fuel mileage of many popular models – some by several miles per gallon, including the Soul subcompact above – and compensating owners in the US and Canada for the reduction.

Summarizing the results of research carried out by Edmunds, Reuters reports that consumers' are less inclined to purchase cars from Hyundai and Kia due to the company's recent snafu over inflated mileage claims. The Edmunds metric of "purchase intent" declined by 1.9 percent for the Kia Soul (pictured), meaning that the largest drop in consideration coincided with the model that suffered the biggest drop in mileage ratings. Consideration dropped .4 percent for the Hyundai Elantra, and purchasing

With the 2014 Soul still in the testing phase, it sounds like Kia is planning to add an all-electric variant to its quirky hatchback's lineup. There aren't any solid details about the Kia Soul EV, but Autocar is reporting that the Korean automaker has confirmed this information and test mules have already been spotted near the company's Russelsheim, Germany technical HQ.